philly cheesesteak

Firstly, please don't send us hate mail for not going to Pat's. As much as we would have loved to eat Philly cheesesteaks everyday, it's probably not a great idea. Geno's was our choice after a few people sent us emails recommending it over Pat's. We promise that if we ever go to Philadelphia again, we'll try the competition.

Okay, now that we've cleared that up: Geno's was good. Meat, cheese, and bread - what's not to like? We went out of our way to go there and weren't sure what to expect. When we approached a surly subway employee for directions, he felt it was necessary to give us his two cents. Let's call him Stan

Stan: Why you guys going all the way to Geno's, you can get a cheesesteak down the street.Mina: Oh, you know, it's a tourist thing.Stan: Where you from?

Alex: CanadaStan: What's that coffee place up in Canada?

Us: {I think we just shrugged and looked confused}Stan: ...with the coffee and donuts.Alex: Tim Horton's?Stan: Yeah, yeah. Tim Horton's. You guys like Tim Horton's?Mina: Not really.Stan: Exactly. Everyone told me to go there and it ain't nuffin special.

Despite his compelling argument, we made our way to Geno's anyway. The line up at the restaurant was quite long, but moved very quickly.

The signs before the order wicket were kind of scary and confrontational. Why is Geno so angry? We both ordered, quickly and clearly, in English to avoid a soup nazi incident. We later read that if you order with too heavy of an accent all you'll get is a bun with cheese whiz on it because they "need to keep the line moving". Yikes!

So, would we go to Geno's again? Probably not. But, if we hadn't gone we'd still be upset that we didn't try it. So, we're glad we did. Oh, and by the way, when you're in Canada, don't bother going to Tim Horton's - Stan was right, it "ain't nuffin special".

That's pretty funny. Stanley is right, us locals don't really bother with Geno's or Pat's (I don't have a preference of either except I'd choose Pat's since Geno's has the xenophobic "Speak English" signs). Next time you come back to Philly - forget Pat's, and go straight to Jim's on South Street. Now that's sumpin' special :)

What a great post ! Next time, skip Pat's and head to Tony Luke's off of Oregon Ave. They don't have any scary signs. Joey Vento isn't a mean dude - he's actually very nice - he just needs to work on his tolerance a little bit !

ha, your post is cracking me up because i recently went to philly and wrote about the pat's vs. geno's debate. in my mind it was an easy contest -- pat's wins. but when people started telling me about the xenophobic issues over at geno's, i was glad i liked pat's better.

Ain't nuffin' wrong with Tim Horton's. Part of its appeal is that there are so many of them, so if you feel like a bagel or a donut at any time of day or night, you pretty much need to turn in any direction and there will be multiple Tim Horton's restaurants in sight.

Who cares if it's only mediocre (but cheap) food? Its appeal is its ubiquity.

Within a 5-10 minute walk from my work, there are five different T-Ho's. What other restaurant is that unnecessarily convenient?

Wow, Geno/ Joey Vento is a dick. Next time I'm in Philadelphia, I'm going straight to Pat's as a big F-U. No need to even try Geno's. And I'm totally surprised I haven't heard more of an outcry on this before. Thanks for posting and letting me know!

yummy - i totally get the draw of going to the touristy place. sometimes you just can't help it! there's a place in philly where they yell at you when you get your cheesesteak, i can't remember the name, but call me crazy, i want to go there! ha!

Wow sounds like an interesting experience. I'm not sure how PC those signs are, but I guess it makes for a unique environment! Ugh don't even get me started on Tim Horton's...I'm definitely one Canadian who doesn't like the place!

Wow, Geno is kinda a d-bag. I think I remember hearing about this guy on the news, or someone similar who refuses to serve anyone who doesn't order in English. Not sure how that's legal; you can't refuse to serve a particular race, sex or sexual orientation, so how is this any different?